We’re not huge cat-toy buyers. Our cats aren’t terribly interested in gee-whizzery, and the Kitty Can’t Cope Sack represents the pinnacle of technology to them. Milo’s favorite toy, when he’s not getting his kitty buzz on, is a crumpled receipt (and his zeal for pursuing them, even in an uncrumpled state, makes entering expenses into Quicken an exercise that would impress the Flying Wallendas). We are well aware that for the feline imagination a cardboard box is a castle, a TARDIS, and a treehouse all in one.

So why we were enticed by a $5 IKEA nylon cat-hut, I don’t know. But I’m happy we didn’t listen to our wiser voices for once. The thing’s a hit at our house, and for some reason we find it endlessly amusing to find our cat-family enjoying its cozy Swedish vibe.

I’m still way behind on my homework, have a ton of miscellaneous things to deal with, John has a nasty cold, and I have class tonight, but it was brought home to me that I have not yet posted enough about Maine. More photos and brief commentary after the cut. [Read more…]

We’ve had heavy rains around these parts recently (though nothing to what the folks in the Gulf Coast are facing – I’m watching those reports with dread). Dash, always afraid of thunder, now seems to have extended that trepidation to mere heavy rain.

Not usually a lap cat, he sniffed at the slider the other morning and insisted on sharing the available space on my lap with my computer. I was able to snag his chagrin with the PhotoBooth program. Poor dear.

The thing that made Milo go insane this evening was a Kitty Can’t Cope Sack which is probably at least five years old. Simon and Dash have been gnawing on it, rubbing it on their faces, and generally flipping out on it since long before our littlest feline monster was born. There is at least as much cat saliva in this thing as kitty ganja. And yet, it still has the mojo. Even more miraculous, it’s still intact.

This is weapons-grade catnip, my friends. And three for less than $10? By my reckoning, that’s about fifteen years of cat-frenzy. A bargain.

(I really like that heel, and this was my first foray into linen stitch, which is a bit of a pain, but the effect is nice).

Extra bonus holiday weekend cute – LoLo the lounger:

(Yes, that’s Milo. I have a slightly wacky habit of nipping a nickname off the back of our pets’ names. So MacIntosh becomes Tosh or Toshie, Simon becomes MonMon or Mon-ster, and Milo has become Lo, Little Lo, or LoLo. Those with single-syllable names don’t have this indignity visited upon them, so Dash is safe.)

Hmm…. May of 1998. I had just moved to the DC area for the first time. I purchased my first house in Arlington, VA (everyone told me I was out of my mind for buying, the market would tank any minute, everything was overpriced… um… yah. Not so much.) I had one cat (Mon, MonMon, Monster). I wasn’t in a relationship, and for the first time in my adult life, I was pretty cool with that.

Five things on my to-do list for today:

Write this post

Work more on the blob bee shawl

Clean up the kitchen

Relax

Relax some more (holiday, don’cha know)

Snacks I enjoy:

Mostly things with salt – potato chips, corn chips and salsa, and the like, but I also really like pickles… mmm. Pickles. Salt and chocolate together are also favorites, like chocolate-covered pretzels, and while it’s not salty, chocolate-covered ginger is a dangerous new discovery.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Um… wow. The world kind of explodes when you think that way, doesn’t it? My mom and I used to play a game called "dream house" – we would talk about various aspects of what home would look like if money was no object: location, features, what sort of special rooms we might have. This is kind of like that, except there’s a personal and a public side to it. Clearly there would be a lovely home (well, homes – favorite places like Colorado and Paris spring immediately to mind), and there would be travel to places I want to visit but wouldn’t necessarily want to live (India, the rest of Europe, New Zealand), but there would also be the "doing good" part of having that much money, and knowing me, it would be about education and independence. I suppose I would either fund a foundation and work with people who are committed to enable independence through education, or find a foundation that’s already doing that sort of work and work with them.

Places I have lived:

It’s a pretty short list: New Hampshire (Hollis and Manchester); Portland, Maine; Minneapolis, Minnesota; the DC suburbs of Maryland and Virginia; Somerville, Massachusetts (I’m only including places where I’ve had an address on my driver’s license – there are other places I have spent considerable time – like London, England, or Menlo Park, California).